Most people are aware that they have protections under the U.S. Constitution and later court rulings against unreasonable search and seizure. For example, law enforcement can’t generally remove items from a property unless they have the owner’s or resident’s permission, a valid search warrant or “exigent circumstances” like the imminent destruction of evidence.
For these items to be used as evidence against someone, however, the “chain of custody” must be maintained. Police can’t just remove something, throw it in their car and give it to prosecutors to use in building a case.
How can a chain of custody be broken?
To maintain an unbroken chain, details about how and by whom the item was collected, handled, bagged, stored, transported and analyzed must be recorded. Authorities need to be able to show where the evidence was at any given time and who had access to it.
A break in the chain can occur in any number of ways, including:
- Contamination of the crime scene – for example, if unauthorized people are allowed to wander into the scene while evidence is still being collected
- Improper handling – for example, if an officer touched a piece of evidence without gloves
- Improper storage – for example, if a piece of evidence wasn’t sealed in an approved, tamper-proof bag
- Mislabeling of evidence – for example, if it was seized from a location different than that recorded on the bag
A break in the chain can occur, as noted, at the crime scene and any time leading up to it, potentially being used in court against someone.
What happens if a break in the chain is found?
If the chain of custody for an item of evidence (whether it’s blood, a weapon, fingerprints, a flash drive or anything else) is broken, a defendant can and should seek to suppress the evidence. That means it would be declared inadmissible and could not be used against them.
Prosecutors may have plenty of other evidence that someone committed a crime. However, in some cases, not being able to use compromised evidence can mean they can no longer charge someone with a particular crime and have to drop the case or possibly settle for lesser charges they can prove.
Even the possibility that a piece of evidence may have been compromised due to chain of custody errors is enough to get a case thrown out because a person’s future may depend on the outcome of that case. Having sound legal guidance can help people ensure that their rights are protected at every stage.